It is not the end

    

                                                                    Picture credit: Thanet Creative

In last month’s post, I referred to the lyrics of a song I’d written expressing how Jesus wasn’t what people might have expected. When imagining God’s son, the glorious saviour of mankind, it seems reasonable to picture a powerful leader, a person of great stature and strength. Still, instead of a towering, commanding figure, we got a vulnerable baby born in a stinky stable under questionable moral circumstances. It didn’t get much better either. No rags-to-riches story here. All he became was a humble carpenter who embarrassed himself by riding a pathetic donkey rather than a stallion. To top it all off, he ended up humiliated on a cross alongside some proper scumbags. Not exactly Braveheart or Gladiator, was it?

Of course, we have the advantage of knowing there’s a sequel to part one. From weakness came strength, from defeat came victory, and from death came life.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian, said, “If the situation is unhappy, it is not the end.” Bonhoeffer knew all about unhappy situations – the Nazis executed him for his opposition to their regime. Many believe that death is the last chapter, but those of faith can take comfort knowing there’s more to come, even if the situation feels hopeless. 

New drafts of my work in progress continue. It is slow, but there is movement, mainly in the right direction. I had gone with a happy, loose ends tied up kind of last chapter, but on reflection, I’m having a rethink. A friend kindly acted as a beta reader, and the ending didn’t sit right with them. They felt it was too neat to feel realistic. The same view was repeated independently in feedback from another reader, who said that ending everything happily at this stage of the character’s life seemed premature. They urged me to consider whether readers want to be told the world is fair or that the good guys always win, and that by leaving some things open, I can explore the characters more in a future book. 

So, thanks to my beta readers steering me down a fresh path, I no longer need to complete the story as I first imagined. Beyond my new ending, there is more to come.

For now, happily ever after will have to wait.